


Mister Cellophane

by creatureofhobbit



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-07 22:32:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13444776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: Why Eugene chose to join the Saviors





	Mister Cellophane

_If someone stood up in a crowd  
And raised his voice up way out loud  
And waved his arm and shook his leg  
You'd notice him  
If someone in the movie show  
Yelled, "Fire in the second row  
This whole place is a powder keg"  
You'd notice him  
And even without clucking like a hen  
Everyone gets noticed, now and then  
Unless, of course, that person it should be  
Invisible, inconsequential me_

 

It had always been that way.

Eugene was always the kid who blended in, who was kinda in the background of things, the one who would turn up at parties but the host was always surprised to see him there because no one had thought to actually invite him, the one who got all the generic “Have a nice summer” greetings in the yearbook and no personal messages, the kid whose parents once got a glowing report intended for someone named Eric on parents evening and on being told that they were in fact Eugene’s parents, that teacher wasn’t even sure who they were talking about.

Nothing had changed when he got his job as a high school teacher. He was always the one on his own in the staffroom, listening as people talked about things like the Sox game, or the latest episode of 24, and it all washed over him. No one had anything to say to him, or he to them. He was just there, in the background, invisible, none knowing or caring if he was there. When that Big Bang Theory show started, some of the students started calling him Sheldon Cooper, and that even spread to the staffroom eventually.

When the outbreak began, Eugene had one thought in his head, to get himself to Washington DC, where he thought he had most chance of surviving. He didn’t know how he would get there yet – but he would somehow. Chances were, even the zombies would ignore him.

 

_Cellophane, Mister Cellophane  
Should have been my name, Mister Cellophane  
'Cause you can look right through me  
Walk right by me and never know I'm there  
I tell ya, Cellophane, Mister Cellophane  
Should have been my name Mister Cellophane  
'Cause you can look right through me  
Walk right by me and never know I'm there_

Abraham Ford was someone who probably wouldn’t have looked twice at Eugene before the outbreak. But in that moment, when he took the time to shoot the walkers who were pursuing Eugene, Eugene knew he had to keep this guy around. It felt like the first time someone had actually noticed him.

It was a sudden impulse that had him blurting out that he knew what had caused the virus, how to cure it and that he was on his way to Washington to do something about it. It was crazy, he knew that now. He was just taking the chance that Abraham was no scientist, and that if he talked enough convincing bullshit, he’d be able to fool him into believing it. And it worked; he knew enough of the vocabulary from his science classes that, while an expert would know he was bullshitting, a layperson wouldn’t question it, and Abraham accepted it without question. If anything, he made it his personal mission to make damn sure Eugene got there. 

It had been easier when the whole idea of getting to DC was just in the abstract, when they were still nowhere near, and Eugene could imagine that it wasn’t going to happen. But as they got closer, making their way up through Georgia, as they had met more people who wanted to help them on their way, Eugene began to worry about how he was going to get out of that one. It would have been so much easier to have stayed put in Georgia, with Rick, Glenn, Daryl and the others, people Eugene honestly felt could help him survive. Maybe he didn’t need to go to DC. But Abraham was always there fighting his corner, loudly insisting that they had to get Eugene there, so he could do something about the virus. For the first time in Eugene’s life, he had someone who actually gave a damn about him.

Yet he also knew that he couldn’t keep up the act forever; if they actually found someone in DC who he would have to tell his story to, it would come out immediately that he was useless; they’d been carrying dead weight the entire time. He’d hoped that sabotaging the van would have worked, that Abraham and Rosita would have realised the trip was fruitless, that they should stay put. But Abraham was so determined 

Once everyone knew that Eugene had lied about his knowledge of the virus, he saw the looks on their faces, just the same looks as he had seen everywhere else. He knew he was no use to them, wondered what exactly he contributed. Every time he heard Rick ask someone how many walkers they had killed, or how many people, he’d think about how if he was coming to their group as a stranger at that point, and Rick asked him that question, he’d give some pathetic answer, and they wouldn’t take him in. He saw the lack of trust in their eyes as they wondered what else he could lie about; the disgust on Rosita’s face as she said “People died for you.”

They saw him as a coward, the guy who was no use at killing walkers, the guy who contributed very little to the group. They saw him as creepy, after that time Tara had caught him watching Abraham and Rosita having sex, and he knew he couldn’t explain that.

He’d tried to test the water with Tara after that incident, made some comment about how no one would want to keep him around if he couldn’t save the world. She hadn’t understood what he was trying to tell her, and had said that she would because he was her friend. Eugene had actually believed her, and when the time came when he knew he couldn’t keep up his lie any longer, he’d really thought they would understand. But he saw the looks on their faces as they took it in, he heard Rosita’s comments about how he was only still there because he had lied and the others felt sorry for him, and he knew he would never really change in their eyes.

 

_Suppose you was a little cat  
Residin' in a person's flat  
Who fed you fish and scratched your ears?  
You'd notice him  
Suppose you was a woman wed  
And sleepin' in a double bed  
Beside one man for seven years  
You'd notice him  
A human being's made of more than air  
With all that bulk, you're bound to see him there  
Unless that human being next to you  
Is unimpressive, undistinguished, you know who_

 

The way Negan was looking at Eugene, as though he was actually impressed with him, was something Eugene felt like he’d never seen before.

He’d had the sense this time not to claim to know anything about how to stop the outbreak, but he still told the rest of his story about all the doctorates he supposedly had. He probably should have stuck to that in the first place, but it was too late now.

As Negan listened, he actually seemed impressed and interested, in a way that Eugene wasn’t sure Abraham had, even as he was so determined to get Eugene to DC. All of a sudden, Eugene was someone. Negan wanted to know him, he made him feel like he mattered, Eugene was in a position of power that he never had before. He was used to always getting shoved to the back of the line for everything in his school days, last to be picked for teams. Now everyone was moving aside for him. And if all he had to do was say he was Negan…well, he had no attachment to the name Eugene Porter, and if by saying he was Negan he could shed the negative associations of that name, then he was happy to go with it. With everyone around him taking the name Negan, he got to be everybody and nobody all at the same time.

Rosita couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to be set free. He couldn’t tell her that here, he finally felt like he was.

 

_I tell ya Cellophane, Mister Cellophane  
Should have been my name, Mister Cellophane  
'Cause you can look right through me  
Walk right by me and never know I'm there  
I tell ya Cellophane, Mister Cellophane  
Should have been my name, Mister Cellophane  
'Cause you can look right through me  
Walk right by me and never know I'm there  
Never even know I'm there_


End file.
